


Hours

by blaiddseren



Category: Primeval
Genre: Infidelity, M/M, Major Character Injury, Relationship Study, Smoking, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, mention of religion, not graphic injury though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 08:44:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19460458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blaiddseren/pseuds/blaiddseren
Summary: “The first hour is spent alternating between talking to doctors and sitting by his bed, clutching his hand and pleading with him to wake up. He doesn’t.”.Nick gets hurt and Stephen can’t do any more than wait for him to get better.





	Hours

**Author's Note:**

> Reposting from my LJ and FF.net.

The first hour is spent alternating between talking to doctors and sitting by his bed, clutching his hand and pleading with him to wake up. He doesn’t.

The second hour you spend reading all the information you have been given. Phrases like ‘Eighty percent success rate’ and ‘Possibility of paralysis’ leaping out at you.

At the beginning of the third hour you agree to let them operate, watching as they wheel him away. The second part of the hour is spent in a cubicle in the hospital bathroom, Captain Ryan on his knees in front of you, your fingers clawing at his hair as his mouth envelopes you. You try to think of nothing but the feeling of his lips around you, of his fingers holding onto your thigh. You fail.

A majority of the fourth hour is spent vomiting. The guilt you are feeling threatening to overtake even the worry. Eventually you end up in the church hospital and it is unsurprising when Abby and Connor join you. The last few minutes of the fourth hour are spent sending up a prayer to a God you’ve never even believed in.

He’s back from surgery by the fifth hour and you sit back by his bedside, holding his hand so tightly you are amazed it doesn’t fall off. Surprisingly it is Lester who manages to persuade you to return home, even offering to drive you.

That’s how the sixth hour is mainly spent sobbing in Lester’s arms, telling him how scared you are, how much you’ve messed up, even about that little indiscretion with Ryan.

The seventh and eighth hours are spent sleeping, you don’t notice as Lester mops up your vomit and leaves, yelling down his phone at Captain Ryan.

Abby and Connor wake you up at some point in the ninth hour and you realise that Lester stole your house key to give them. They make you coffee and food before driving you back to the hospital, none of you saying anything because, really, there’s not much you can say.

The tenth hour is once again filled with doctors, everyone is a lot more positive though, the words ‘Awake soon’ flit across your mind as you sneak outside for a cigarette, something you haven’t done since you were sixteen.

In the eleventh hour he finally wakes up and you are able to breathe again, laughing through your tears as he tries to brush them away.

Seventy two hours after Nick first got hurt, you walk into the ARC together. You step back to give everyone room to greet him and, as you glance up, you catch Ryan’s eye, he nods and you know that it is thanks for forcing Lester to drop the idea of punishing Ryan for taking advantage of you. Taking advantage… The words almost make you laugh, if anyone was taking advantage it was you. You feel Nick’s eyes on you and flush slightly, ducking your head, he had been incredibly understanding when you’d explained what had happened with Ryan, Nick had only asked if it had made you feel better. “No, I thought it would but I just felt like shit.” Was your mumbled reply and he’d hugged you, kissing your head and once again reminding you just how much he truly understood the way your brain worked. Not that that had stopped him punching Captain Ryan. As the clock ticks over into the seventy third hour and Nick whispers, “I love you” in your ear you realise that, just maybe, you can stop counting now.


End file.
